Why would a blond, “non-Jewish” American want to immigrate to Israel? What is the connection? Especially when so few Jews in the United States are willing to make the switch.
What force would lead someone to travel to Israel 11 times, serve in 8 kibbutzim, and even stay there during the Persian Gulf War, wearing a gas mask, with their room designated as a cheder atoom – “sealed room” – that other volunteers had? what to run? Every time the eerie sirens sounded that another Scud Missile was heading for the Promised Land? Why is such a person at risk of being arrested, defamed and deported to participate in legal demonstrations in Jerusalem?
The first time I visited Israel was with the Worldwide Church of God in 1980 to celebrate Sukkot, the Biblical Feast of Tabernacles. (Some Christians understand that Israel’s harvest festival heralds the peace and prosperity that everyone will soon enjoy under the Messiah’s golden rule.) But that whirlwind experience only whetted my appetite.
I wanted to go back to get a closer look at Israel than through the window of a tour bus. This is how I decided to return as a kibbutz volunteer in the fall of 1982. A kibbutz is a collective farm, but increasingly includes other industries as well. I initially served at Ramat Yohanan near Haifa, in sight of Mount Carmel, famous for the close encounter of the prophet Elijah with the pagan Israelites.
You could say that I have a divine love for the Jews and the nation of Israel (Isaiah 62: 6-7). That sacred bond has been strengthened over the years by the fact that I have been blessed to have lived throughout all of Israel, knowing its land and people quite well. Apart from 5 months in Ramat Yohanan, I have also stayed at Sdot Yam in the Mediterranean, next to Caesarea, the site of my first ulpan (intensive Hebrew course), and where the hero of Israel, Hannah Senesh was from; Regavim, near Zichron Yaakov, where I continued my Hebrew lessons in the middle of its green hills; Reshafim, near Bet She’an, with Mount Gilboa practically in our backyard and the mountains of Jordan in a beautiful view ahead; Adamit, on the border with Lebanon, on top of a mountain, from where on clear days you can see all the way to Mount Carmel in Haifa; Shoval, a rose in the Negev desert, north of Be’er Sheva; Dan, in the northernmost part of Israel, between Syria and Lebanon, next to the majestic snow-covered Mount Hermon, where I lived when “Operation Desert Storm” broke out; and Ha’On, with his camp and ostrich farm on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, off Tiberias; and last but not least, my beloved Jerusalem, next to my favorite place on earth: the Temple Mount.
But why would you leave the beautiful farms and magnificent greenery of Ohio for a Middle Eastern country? (My ancestors sailed to America from England, including John and Priscilla Alden on the Mayflower.) Why would I legally change my name from David A. Hoover to David Ben-Ariel? (In Hebrew: David, son of the Lion of God, nickname of Jerusalem / Isaiah 29: 1). Yes because?
1) Because I am a Christian-Zionist who believes that the rebirth of Israel is nothing short of a miracle, and that all Bible believers must either support this fulfillment of prophecy or deny their faith.
And 2) because I firmly believe in what many are discovering now: the Israelite identity of the peoples of Northwest Europe. This awareness of our Hebrew roots and biblical responsibilities accelerates the redemption process. Herbert W. Armstrong was one of the greatest to restore this truth to millions through The United States and Great Britain in prophecy, but I am a friend of Yair Davidiy in Israel, founder of Brit Am Israel and author of The tribes Y Ephraim, who represents a growing number of Jews who are once again accepting the revelation of his brother, Joseph, leader of the northern ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel (other than the southern Kingdom of Judah). Due to my Anglo-Saxon heritage, as well as my descent from the British and Scottish royal families, I am considered to be from the tribes of Joseph and Judah. (There are twelve tribes of Israel). For people like me, Israel is also our ancient Homeland. I really feel that my return to Zion completes a historical circle in my family’s history.
After having been to Israel so many times and having written countless letters to The Blade (the Toledo, Ohio newspaper) and various articles in support of a Jewish state, I never imagined that I would one day be deported from it!
As reported on the front page of the Jerusalem Post (January 8, 1996), the GSS (Israel Secret Service) requested my deportation on the false charges of my alleged involvement in a plot to blow up the Al-Aksa Mosque. This parody of justice occurred during the “witch hunt” that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Israeli left was exploiting the death of Yitzhak Rabin to crush his legal opposition. Such Stalinist tactics were condemned by former Russian refuseniks and “prisoners of Zion.” Fortunately, the Shimon Peres regime was overthrown with the election of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. Bibi (as Netanyahu affectionately called her) had also been branded an “enemy of peace” for opposing total surrender to the demands of the PLO. He promised the Israelis “peace with security.”
As a Christian member of the Temple Mount faithful, I had the privilege of participating in their legal demonstrations during my 10-month stay in Jerusalem awaiting citizenship. Israeli television often showed me with my Jewish friends carrying Israeli flags throughout the Old City. I have also published letters in the Jerusalem Post, the Traveler, and other publications on the hot topic of the Temple Mount.
Currently, that holy site is under a militant Muslim occupation that forcibly prohibits Christians or Jews from praying or reading the Bible there. This despite the fact that both Solomon’s and Herod’s temples were there, and Jesus and his disciples taught and prayed there. Israel has a law against such violent religious discrimination, but they are apparently afraid or unwilling to enforce it. Such shameful appeasement rewards the aggressors and punishes the innocent! The faithful on the Temple Mount boldly demand an end to this injustice.
Within Beyond Babylon: the rise and fall of EuropeI have asked the Israeli government to exercise its Jewish responsibility to build the Temple. I wrote that book in the United States before this problem. The book clearly explains that I am not asking any individual to remove the mosques, but rather hope that the GOVERNMENT will fulfill its historical obligations. I mentioned this to the police during my six and a half hours of questioning. I was later imprisoned in the Russian compound in Jerusalem for three weeks until my heartbreaking deportation.
As my lawyer in Israel, Naftali Warzberger, has written, my future is tied to that of the Jews and Israel. That is why I am sure that justice will prevail. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D. Ohio) has persistently brought this case of religious discrimination and political persecution before our State Department. Senator Mike DeWine (R. Ohio) has asked on my behalf to return to Zion and was informed that the Home Office “has made the decision not to grant the visa and does not offer any information to support its decision.” Since then, they have written to Senator DeWine that I will not be “eligible for a visa until 2005.”
Is it a crime to have a constant love for Israel? Believe what is written in the Law and the Prophets about the Temple and our responsibility to build it? Sorry it hasn’t been done yet? As the Jerusalem Talmud says: “every generation in which the Temple has not been built is as if the Temple was destroyed in it …” Isn’t the emblem of the state of Israel a gold menorah between two olive branches of gold?
Should I remain in exile, exiled from the Land that I love, because my hope, prayer and dream is that Israel fulfill what that symbol represents: the Temple and Israel’s destiny to become Light for all nations?